We left Cascais just after 7am having been met at the dock by a marineiro to return our key deposit and give us a hand out. There was a bit too much S in the forecast for an easy sail, we thought but the similar forecasts had yielded an E wind on the previous days and that is indeed what we found. Engines were off by 7:20am and we were sailing south. We managed to sail for most of the day, before the wind died. At this point we hadn't seen any fishing gear or boats but were still well inside the ships heading to the TSS, so we opted to motor along inside. The plan was to stay inshore of the TSS and the next day, we would hopefully get some wind and turn S.

Overnight the wind arrived and it was a little bumpy, especially for Robert who was less used to things. We ran 3 hour watches from 10pm, first Robert who was still slightly on US time, then Amanda and I took the final watch as we figured we'd be closing on the TSS then. We were a little slower overnight than we though, so didn't reach the TSS until around 9:30am. The good news was that no-one had suffered mal-de-mer overnight and spirits were high.

We raised sail once our course wouldn't put us in conflict with the TSS and as the wind picked up, so did our speed. The wind continued to increase and we were flying along at up to 8.4knots with 2 reefs in both the Genoa and Main. It was great, exhilarating sailing and the helm took a few waves causing some fun. The wind began to ease and we shook out the reefs to maintain our speed. Our course was a little too W of ideal but we were hoping the wind would shift.

Lunchtime brought an interesting problem. A couple of flies turned into tens and soon it felt like hundreds. We determined they weren't coming from inside, but had to keep doors and windows shut. Outside we were deluged with them. We hunted for the source but never found it. By evening it was calming down and we were clear the next morning.

We had the best night sail we had ever had on the second night. A glorious beam reach doing 7 knots for most of the night straight towards Rabat. We had to dodge one ship, and 1 other avoided us, but for the most part there was nothing else out there. The stars were incredible. Most of my watch was spent starring at them.

Breakfast brought discussions about our arrival. We were aiming for a rising tide just before high tide. Originally we had thought Sunday or even Monday given the light forecasts, but staying inside the TSS had given us a reduced distance and we had made cracking time. We knew that we could probably be there in time for Saturday but it would also be dark. Not impossible but harder work. We decided to go for it! As the wind dropped during the day we motor sailed to keep up the speed. By 5pm we were insight of Morocco!

As we closed on the coast we had to start dodging fishing boats which had lights not described by col regs and were pulling nets of unknown lengths. We managed to dodge them and radioed up the marina. They spoke enough English that with my schoolboy French we agreed to meet the pilot boat at the entrance in 20mins. We motored on dodging unlit buoys and poorly lit rowing boats. The new radar was certainly earning it's keep, as was Robert on the bow with a bright torch.

We met the pilot boat who guided us up the river, past the poorly marked, hard to see training wall where we both surfed despite the small swell. I can understand why they close it with a 2m swell! As expected we were guided onto the customs berth. We were flying the Q flag to request clearance as is the norm, but the customs officer was most upset we weren't flying the Moroccan flag. We changed immediately and I recommend anyone else visiting Rabat just fly the Moroccan flag on arrival. However the guy was most pleasant after that. No sniffer dog, and a warning not to take my helicopters off the boat, but no baksheesh and all very respectful.

Once cleared in, we were shown to our berth. We were all very tired at this point but we managed to squeeze down the fairway and into out berth. Just.

We were elated. 2.5days to do 350nm, some of which was motoring at 4-5knots. Plenty was sailing at 7-8knots. Our longest passage to date, just beating the Biscay crossing but definitely had more sailing than that. We had some lovely conditions and some lively conditions - upwind sailing at 33knots at one point! A great crossing and after some sleep, we'd explore a new country to us.